Spaceship Earth – An Overambitious Documentary

Perhaps there is no better time than now for Spaceship Earth to come. Considering the times we live in, a documentary about a group of people who were essentially quarantined is only fitting. The film also serves as a hopeful message about the future and the unfortunate truth about what was holding us back from that future that may be admirable though doesn’t all work. Some may be aware of the Biosphere 2 experiment involving a giant replica of the earth’s ecosystem held within a dome back in the early 1990s, this film follows the ambitious group of misfits, or hippies, that conceived the idea and the courageous biospherians who agree to take part in what was a two year experiment through a series of interviews with many of the people involved as well as archival footage. While the production value was clearly there, the film never quite comes together as these two stories are separately compelling, the latter more than the former, but didn’t quite fit together.

As mentioned, Spaceship Earth‘s origins dated back to the 1970s at the Synergia Ranch in New Mexico, a community full of like-minded individuals whose beliefs and personalities were generally a departure from the norm to say the least. While it’s easy to call them hippies, these were unorthodox individuals with the sole desire to make change and their methods were arguably interpreted by some as cult-like. Despite everything else, they were a family and their means to support themselves were surprisingly not so unusual, turning to traditional capitalism to finance their endeavours. Through their many workings, this group, led by ecologist John P. Allen, met Ed Bass, a Texas billionaire for which he would share similar beliefs. Over the years, Bass would finance many of the group’s projects, none bigger than Biosphere 2, an experiment to test the viability of closed ecological systems to support and maintain human life in space (though could also result in a financial windfall if successful).

Those familiar with the story will of course know what happened from there for the most part but suffice it to say that things did not go well from there. Though the experiment was unknown territory, things would go wrong both ideologically and literally as the biospherians suffered as the original purpose of the experiment arguably became clouded by greed and ambition. Meanwhile, the perseverance of those biospherians, a group of ambitious and optimist individuals with their own funky red jumpsuits, was inspiring as they recounted their experience. In the end, they were merely pawns that found themselves swept up in controversy as the true nature of the experiment and those behind it were put into question. Unfortunately, the story would end on a sour note as control of Biosphere 2 changed hands (though it continues to operate today) though despite this, it did not dissuade the group from Synergia Ranch. While it’s slow start didn’t exactly help, the biggest problem with Spaceship Earth was its lack of depth. While it clearly cares, its enamoring for these characters leads to it only ever dealing with its characters and subject matter on a surface level thus an emotional connection was never there.

At the end of the day, Spaceship Earth is a solid documentary telling an important story that will surely leave viewers engaged over its near 2 hour running time. Many will find themselves connecting to the biospherians but this film bites off more than it could chew with its commentary on ideology and science therefore a film from their perspective arguably would have made for a more compelling experience.

*still courtesy of Elevation Pictures*

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.